NBA Soliloquies: Blake Griffin and the burden of young talent

Why Griffin has been unfairly judged and other thoughts from the NBA this week

Jan. 22, 2013

Los Angeles Clipper Blake Griffin dunks the ball against the Memphis Grizzlies in an LA victory. Griffin is one of the young stars who is tasked with the curse of more from the media. / Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Written by

David Walker

Contributing Writer @JDavidwalker

Contributing Writer David Walker is a freshman stuck living in a dorm with no cable, refusing to pay the exorbitant price asked by FSU Housing. So, instead, he purchased an NBA League Pass and spends his nights watching an unreasonable amount of NBA games. Finding no one in his vicinity to share his thoughts with, he asked for a space to speak on the NBA weekly hoping to find a friend who enjoys basketball as much as him. Here's to you future friend.

Blake Griffin is really good at basketball. Anyone who even vaguely pays attention to the league knows this. The question now becomes, as it always does when a young superstar starts to grow into his prime, how good is he? During the current age where highlight dunks make it to YouTube mere seconds after they happen and people can share their reaction instantly over twitter, human highlight reels like Griffin tend to thrive. And yet, starting with last year, it became “cool” to call Griffin overrated by magnifying his flaws and demeaning his strengths. This criticism stemmed from an overall backlash against that Clippers team that people considered all flash and no substance, Griffin being a player whose only use was to dunk. Putting aside the fact that the dunk is the single most efficient shot in all of basketball, this complete and utter dismission of Griffin’s multi-faceted and extremely effective post game is ridiculous.

Griffin joins a long list of beloved rookies whose games, almost out of nowhere, began receiving more and more inexplicable criticism as they aged, even as they continued getting better and better. LeBron James is the most recent and famous example of this stupid tradition. He was celebrated his first few years of, against all odds, matching and even surpassing the unbelievable amount of expectations that came with him when he entered the league. And then as he began winning more and more and as he established himself as the league’s best player, the criticism around him reached unparalleled heights. It’s hard to tell when or why the media and fans will turn on the next budding superstar, and even now as Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving are all universally adored, they are the most likely to be the next players to fall victim to the need to throw a shocking “overrated” tag on a star.

The only way to throw this tag off once the narrative makers grab a hold of you is to change the story. LeBron found himself being ascended to the NBA’s greatest heights by the very same people that had been tearing him down for years once he won his first championship.

Blake Griffin is now in the very peculiar and perhaps even more egregious place of being almost forgotten during this impressive Clippers run. The false narrative about the Clippers being a team of only highlight plays with no real substance, mostly stemming from the criticisms of Blake, have rightly fallen apart this season. And yet the massive strides Blake has made to improve his all ready all-star caliber game, a major factor in the Clippers recent success, has gone largely unnoticed and unheralded. Griffin has done the very “un-flashy” thing and sacrificed his minutes (down to 32 minutes a game from 36) for the greater good of the team, and his raw per game numbers have taken a predictable hit because of this. However his per 36 numbers (statistics factored out as if the player plays 36 minutes a game, the typical amount for a NBA star) are all at about the same place they were last year.

The improvements in his game have been much more subtle, things that if you haven’t watched him play this year are easy to miss, and yet their affect on the team is massive. One of the few legitimate criticisms of Griffin was his well below average free throw shooting (.521 last year) and how much of a liability he was at the end of the game when teams were unafraid to send him to the line on offense and attack him defensively. He has improved his free throw shooting to a much more manageable .642 and his defense has taken massive strides toward respectability and at times well above average play. The advancement toward being league average defensively cannot be understated as it was looking very early on that Griffin may end up being Carlos Boozer-level of untrustworthy in crunch time due solely to the fact that he is a revolving door on defense. Griffin has also made great strides to fit in seamlessly with the Clippers top 5 NBA offense, through his improved passing ability and floor spacing.

His midrange jump shot, while still looking very flatfooted and at time down right ugly, has been going in at an above average rate of 43.3%. Defenders can no long afford to ignore Griffin as he catches the ball outside the paint to go help on someone else, something the Clippers take especial advantage of with their bevy of three point shooters. The complimentary cutting abilities of guys like Eric Bledsoe and Matt Barnes utilize Blake’s improved passing ability by gaining access to multiple cutting lanes due to the attention Griffin gets in the post. While Blake Griffin, with his multiple appearances on SportsCenter’s highlights nightly, is hardly forgotten, he is getting short changed this year compared to how much negative attention he got last year. It’s time to appreciate how good Blake Griffin is, and accept how much better he has gotten and is continuing to get.

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Other thoughts on the week that was in the NBA.

• John Wall made his season debut last Monday and has made a previously nauseatingly awful to watch Wizards team suddenly a little easier to stomach. Despite the 50 foot grave Washington dug themselves these past few months (8-30 record) the addition of Wall has given new life to the previously comatose Bradley Beal, whose averaging nearly 20 points a game on 60% shooting since Wall has been back. Funny what can happen when you play with a PG whose sole purpose in life is not to shoot the ball every time it touches his hands (I’m looking at you, Jordan Crawford).

• Russell Westbrook did not think the Denver home crowd was suffering enough after posting his insane 36-8-9 stat line vs. the Nuggets Sunday so he decided to torment their mascot as well. Not only did Westbrook go out of his way during a TV timeout to block Rocky the Mountain Lion’s attempt at a half court shot, he did it twice. A Denver crowd that was perhaps robbed of a chance at getting free quesadillas if either shot went in, went to booing Russ the rest of the game and was rewarded when his attempted game-tying three pointer rimed out at the end of overtime.

• The Phoenix Suns fired head coach Alvin Gentry Friday for his inability to win with one of the most mediocre and misconstrued rosters in the league. I always find it odd that management decides to fire a coach when the team is in a clear rebuilding stage, and then cites that it was because he wasn’t letting the young guys play enough to develop. The reason these coaches don’t spend time developing the young guys is because they realize they are being judged on how many wins they are producing now, not for future seasons. It's almost as if an open dialogue between the front office and the coach about what the expectations are for that season would be a good thing. Gentry is a good coach who will land on his feet and is probably grateful to now not having to be the one responsible for Michael Beasley clanking long jump shot after long jump shot.